Glass storefront doors sag, drag and stop locking as their pivots wear. Priority Lock and Security repairs the hardware on aluminum and glass storefront doors across Tampa: hook bolt and deadlatch locks, key cylinders, pivots, concealed closers, exit devices and door alignment. We repair the hardware; we do not replace doors or frames.
On an aluminum and glass storefront door, the usual cause is that the door has sagged and the bolt no longer lines up with its opening in the frame or the other door. Most of these doors use a narrow lock in the door's edge with a hook shaped or swinging bolt that pivots out when you turn the key. When the pivots or hinges wear, the door drops a fraction of an inch and the bolt hits metal. On a pair of doors, the bolt locks into the second door, so that door's top and bottom bolts have to be engaged or the pair will pull open even when locked. Less often, the lock body itself has broken inside. The fix starts with getting the door hanging correctly again, then the lock.
Fix it soon. The cylinder on a storefront door threads into the lock body and is held by a small set screw in the edge of the door. When that screw backs out, the cylinder loosens, turns with the key and stops operating the bolt. You can end up with a door that will not lock, or one that will not unlock. It is also a security problem, because a loose cylinder can be twisted out of the door by hand. The repair resets the cylinder to the right depth so its cam lines up with the lock, secures the set screw, and checks that the trim ring around the cylinder is tight and not easy to grip with a tool.
The door has dropped, and on a storefront door that almost always means worn or loose pivots. Most aluminum glass doors hang on a top pivot and a bottom pivot, sometimes with one in between, instead of hinges. The bottom pivot carries the weight of the door, and with years of traffic it wears, loosens, or its screws pull out of the thin aluminum. The door sags toward the latch side, scrapes the threshold, rubs the frame at the top corner and the lock stops lining up. We adjust or replace the pivots, check the closer, which is often hidden in the frame above the door, and reset the door so it swings clear and locks.
Storefront exits use rim exit devices or concealed vertical rod devices mounted to the narrow aluminum stile, and those take specific hardware and mounting. We repair and replace them, along with the push and pull handles, the deadlatches on the exit side and the outside cylinders. See panic bars and exit devices.
Storefront locks use a mortise cylinder that threads out of the door, which makes them quick to rekey when a manager or an employee leaves, and easy to bring into a master key system with the rest of the building. Keys are cut on site.
Text a photo of the door and the hardware to 813-421-4787. We will tell you what it is and what it takes to fix it.
Text a photoIn most cases, yes. The door itself is usually fine; the pivots, the lock, the cylinder or the closer have worn. We replace the worn hardware and reset the door. We do not replace doors or frames, and if a door is past saving we will say so.
Most aluminum storefront doors use a narrow stile deadlock with a hook bolt or a swing bolt, operated by a mortise cylinder on the outside and a thumbturn or a second cylinder inside, plus a deadlatch under the push and pull handles on many exits. A photo of the edge of the door tells us which one you have.
On a pair of doors, the lock in the active door bolts into the inactive door, and the inactive door is held only by its own top and bottom flush bolts. If those are not engaged, or their strikes are worn, the pair pulls open. We repair the flush bolts and strikes and realign the pair.
Yes. Concealed overhead closers and floor closers wear the same way as surface closers, and a failing one lets the door slam or leaves it unlatched. We adjust or replace them along with the pivots that carry the door.
More answers: the full question and answer page. If your question is not there, text a photo of the door to 813-421-4787.
We will tell you what it is, what it takes, and when we can be there.
